Surveyor DPR/TV/305

At Bendigo, Victoria, The Army's Survey Regiment produces maps from field work down to the final printing stage. National Servicemen are now part of the Survey Regiment, having completed their basic training. Among these Sapper Brian Pendlebury, formerly a civil assistant surveyor of Heyfield, Victoria, is learning how to operate the tellurometer an electronic distance measuring device which has cut down the work of surveyors considerably. Warrant Officer Len Davies of Mildura, an experienced Army surveyor, instructs Sapper Pendlebury on the tellurometer, and Sapper Paul Hill, a regular soldier of Tuart Hill, WA has his turn, while Sapper Ron Walley of Heathpool, SA a former assistant surveyor in oil search, uses a psychrometer to determine humidity in relation to operation of the tellurometer. Another National Serviceman, Sapper David Cheesman of Hawthorn, South Australian, a draughtsman, learns how to use the theodolite. Within the next 10 years, every feature of Australia's 3,000,000 square miles will be mapped on a scale of one and a half miles to the inch and Army surveyors will play a big part in this project. From the field work data, calculations are made by the Topographical Squadron at Bendigo using an automatic calculator - another lesson for Sapper Cheesman. Sapper Ron Walley has his turn at tracing machine plots onto the embryo map. In the cartographic section Sapper John Lang of Mt Claremont, WA a former cartographic student and now National Serviceman, gets practical instruction in scribing from Sergeant Tony Ellis. Machine scribing is done with the co-ordinatograph, where Corporal Graham Hill takes the opportunity to instruct National Servicemen. The fotosetter produces print, on film, for positioning on maps, and is of distinct interest to Sapper Peter Raymont of Newmarket, Queensland. Neat work is essential in the cartographic section and Sapper Raymont finds ready assistance from WRAAC Private Marlene Penglase when he strikes trouble. The job sheet is not yet a map. But it is getting very close to it as Sergeant Bob Aulsebrook of Bendigo places it in the copy holder of the giant Klimsch camera. This camera has lenses ranging up to 70 inch and is far cry from the small camera used by Sapper Albert Falzon of The Entrance, NSW, when he was a professional photographer before being called up to National Service. Sapper and Sapper Ian Clarke, another National Serviceman from Sydney and formerly a litho machinist, watch the next step in map making as Corporal Evan Giri of Bendigo, works on the pre-sensitising machine for plate making. Soon the plate will be ready for printing. And in the printing room Sapper Clarke and another National Serviceman, Sapper George Austen of Bendigo, a former letterpress machinist, lock the plate into place for printing. Printing maps at Bendigo seems an endless task. Today the Army's map depot in Melbourne holds more 20,000,000 copies of 10,000 maps of Australia and parts of the world.